Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like flooding.flash, sam neill and lindsey graham. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was clued in.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

The survey has been closed and the results are in!

Thank you to all the 324 people that responded! It was honestly a bigger number than I was expecting so I'm really happy with how it turned out. :D Here are some stats that I can put in Markdown:

• 34 years old is the median age
• We have lived a combined 11615 years
• And the generational breakdown with:
  • Millennials at 59.0%
  • Gen Z at 26.9%
  • Gen X at 12.3%
  • Baby Boomer at 1.5%
  • Greatest Generation at 0.3% not sure if this one is legit ;)

View the full results here

• Tip: You can set a custom age range using the "Set age range" filter to get a better view of results! All the graphs update along with that filter.
• Or get a ZIP download here of the data

Let me know your thoughts about the survey, what you liked, what you didn't like, if you'd like something different about them, you name it!

Thank you all again for participating! I hope to see you in the next survey. :)

So I know that house inspectors only look at surface things. In the UK it seems like structural stuff are checked by professionals before a house sale. In Canada what are they called?

In buying older houses, I would want to evaluate how much I will expect to spend on things like well, septic, roof. But I also want evaluation on if this is a money pit with foundation, structural, or water issues that can't be fixed.

Like @Captcha_Code, I've tried calling structural engineering firms that seemed confused or give $5000 just to take a look estimates. What are they called in Canada and if possible can you provide examples of a firm in any Canadian area so I know what to look for in Atlantic Canada? Searching for geotechnical professionals bring up major infrastructure type of firms.

What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

We've all heard about solar PV panels, but that's not the be-all and end-all of technologies which could make buildings more efficient and less harmful to their environments. May I ask what else have folks got up their sleeves?

Dimensions of environmental friendliness

All good technical discussions start with a host of term definitions and context statements, so I'll attempt to start this one off on strong footing! I figure that anything which checks one or more of these checkboxes (reasoning included) works, but please feel free to colour outside of the lines -- this is just a kicking off point. Note that anti-ticking a checkbox is fine; everything has trade-offs, and sometimes paired solutions can negate each others' downsides. Magnitude is always a factor, too, since this field is rarely black and white.

(no need to bring receipts, mind; I'm sure we can keep this light hearted so as to avoid digging into comparative EPD critiques :3)

• Low embodied carbon (the kgCO2e emitted per a cradle-to-grave analysis (EPD, often) of a product),
• Low operational resource consumption (anything which works as well as an inefficient equivalent, but uses less energy/consumables -- LED vs. incandescent bulbs, heat pumps vs. nat gas furnaces, insulation vs. no insulation, etc.),
  • Includes water conservation, too!
• Durability over design life (per the Canadian Wood Council (they're ... a little biased), the median service life of buildings is <90 years, so adjust amortization periods accordingly),
  • Includes things like wildlife-urban interface-safe materials, as well as clay bricks and whatnot.
• Sustainability (if we can't do it for more than a century, let alone a few decades, it's probably not worth the sunk costs),
• Low environmental toxicity (no point trying to save the environment if it's all a toxic swamp afterwards),
• Supportive of local ecology (built environments tend to be biodiversity deserts -- cobblestone boulevards, brick walk ups, and tin roofs are hostile everything but pigeons and rats. Think native planting, green retaining walls, planted pavers, etc.).

(full disclosure: I'm probably going to borrow several of these at some point, so this is a half-discussion, half-I'm-outsourcing-my-research post 😅 hopefully that's acceptable ...)

This was something I was surprised to learn on a recent trip to the zoo. While the palm oil industry is absolutely wrecking a lot of our rainforests, and, most notedly, orangutans, boycotting all palm oil is actually worse for the environment because palm oil is the most land-efficient vegetable oil crop. It supplies 40% of global vegetable oil but only uses 6% of the land dedicated to oil production.

It's also extremely versatile because "it is semi-solid at room temperature so can keep spreads spreadable; it is resistant to oxidation so can give products a longer shelf-life; it’s stable at high temperatures so helps to give fried products a crispy and crunchy texture; and it’s also odourless and colourless so doesn’t alter the look or smell of food products."

The issue is who produces it and how, so it's only certain products that should be boycotted.

I'm sure the solution isn't as simple as "download this app," but the zoo I went to recommended using the PalmOil Scan app (produced under the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and led by Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Chester Zoo, Auckland Zoo, Zoos SA and Mandai Wildlife Group). It's essentially only available in the Anglosphere (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States), but it tells you if the entire company meets their standards (but not individual products so users don't just boycott all palm oil).

We acknowledge that all companies that receive a rating are in different places on their journey to use 100% certified sustainable palm oil. We want to recognise those companies that are doing well and encourage those companies that need improvement. We hope that by creating this rating system we will accomplish this task and assist consumers with making the most educated shopping choices in regards to sustainable palm oil.

Companies are scored on a point structure and can earn a rating of Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, or No Commitment.

I'm sure a lot of Tilderianeses are conscious of this, so I wanted to share the information (and presumably get more info from someone who knows more).

This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.

Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.

If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.

And by weird, I mean the kind of insanity that would drive normal people to their breaking point as they question reality. The kind where you question what drugs the writers were on to come up with that, or worry for their mental health.

Things like the Peter Parker Clone Saga. Or the scene where he is turned into a spider, somehow gets pregnant, then dies and then basically gives birth to himself by bursting from the body. Or the time Jason Todd gained the power to turn into a tentacle monster and ate a guy. Or just... Most of Supergirl's history apparently. (I have only brushed the surface, but DC's edict make Superman the last Kryptonian led to some convoluted explanations to continue using legacy Kryptonian characters. Also, her horse had a raging crush on her and is technically an ex thanks to human-transformation shenanigans.)

Mainly thinking of DC and Marvel, but I'm open to other long-running comic book universes. Because with enough time, writers have to get creative to fill in issues, and stuff gets WEIRD.

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.